Advise needed. Stuck on career path
 

Hi everyone. Thank you for taking your time to read this.

I am currently a part time student studying in SIM-RMIT Accountancy. I also work full time in a distributor. It is pretty much administrative, where i do AP/AP, process staff claims and coordinate the delivery. Other ad-hocs are also required.

After spending 1.5 years in SIM-RMIT accountancy, i realised i have not learn much about accountancy at all. If i am given a set of accounts to do, i probably will have difficulty. I am quite confused as to my next step in life and which career path i should proceed on next.

I was honestly hoping to apply for an internship or if possible, a full time job in Big 4 to hopefully learn and experience something more than just administrative. I feel like i do not have much options now and looking at requirements from job postings demoralizes me even more, considering the experience and skills required.

Can anyone please give me some advise?

Ah... where did you get the idea that a Big 4 is interested in someone with a part time distance learning degree? Not trying to pour cold water or what, but this is something that a quick linkedin search or asking someone from the finance industry ought to tell you already.

As it is, I doubt you will even get a entry deg finance exec role in local large companies. My advice is to try and find a promotion in internally in your existing co. or try to find finance/account exec. positions in the sme space. At the same time try to get at least an ACCA cert, otherwise this sort of deg honestly not very useful if you want to advance your career in accountancy.

Just december last year i received a call from deloitte for an internship role. But due to my night classes i couldnt accept the internship because it was at their peak period and they needed people to stay late.

There are only 2 person in the department im currently in. Myself and my supervisor who does more of the "accounting" work. Is audit position really out of the question for me? 7 months into this job i was hoping i could use this as an "experience" to add to my resume and hopefully land a job at big 4 for a stepping stone experience, or at least get an internship there.. Sigh.. future seems so bleak..

Internship can be anything, it's just cheap labour & getting a call is not anywhere near offer. Getting a perm position as an audit associate is another ball game. Out of the big4, Deloitte is usually the lowest standard to get in, but even then the lowest I heard of to get in as associate needs a full time respectable private degree.

Alternative is to join them at dipolma level, but you will mainly be doing clerical work for some years before they will consider you as associate. Also need to be realistic, 7 months exp what sort of strategic accounting work you can do. Go anywhere also mostly doing grunt work.

So if you were in my position what would you do? I don't mind doing grunt work right now since i do not have anything else to offer. But not for my entire life. I would like to have progress in my career and not be stuck with mostly data entry.

What should i do..

Go mid-tier. you may stand a chance. Joining big4 as an associate is out of reach in this current situation.

agree with above post. go mid tier for 3-4 years first and go get at least the acca certification. then maybe got chance to go to the local bluechips or regional co.

Thank you for all the advise guys. I will probably stick with my current job at least untill i finish my last semester this year.

Afterwards i will apply for a mid tier audit firm or finance executive position in a SME. Hope for the best. Thanks guys!

You are given the best chance to join the big 4 but you gave up the internship because you wanted to attend some night classes that do not teach you much about accountancy.

And they say the SIM students are more streetwise...

Anyway, at this stage you should finish your degree, then apply for internship again.

Bad advice. Deloitte internships are not meant to bridge grads into perm auditor roles. It's a waste of time for a grad to quit a proper perm job, suffer a big pay cut just to take up a 8 week internship that is not even well received in the market. All this is assuming that he can even get the internship in the first place.